Nik Wallenda conquers Niagara Falls … is the Grand Canyon next?

Nik Wallenda conquers Niagara Falls, is the Grand Canyon next?

Emerging out of a cloud of mist, Nik Wallenda ran the last few steps to become the first man in more than a century to cross Niagara Falls on a high wire and singlehandedly bring the Wallenda name back into the public consciousness.

And he made the promise that his next stunt will be crossing the Grand Canyon.

“Hundreds of millions, if not a billion people, will know who Nik Wallenda is tomorrow morning, that’s kind of crazy,” said Mr. Wallenda in a post-walk press conference conducted after he called his grandmother, which he had promised to do immediately upon completing the feat.

Soaked by the mist and jostled about by wind from the cascades, the wire walker said the hardest part was keeping his bearings. “If I looked down at the cable, there was water moving everywhere, if I looked up, there was heavy mist blowing in my face.”

Although the 45-minute walk was mostly free of theatrics, thirty meters from the finish, he bent down on one knee. As spectators gasped, suspecting he had fallen, he raised a fist in triumph. The crowd chanted his name cheered as he closed the final distance, moving past the lights, cranes and news vans of what had become a multi-million dollar operation. “Welcome to Canada, Nik!” screamed a spectator.

When asked what was next Mr. Wallenda casually mentioned that his next crossing would be even larger, the Grand Canyon. And the wait probably won’t be nearly as long as the one for his Falls crossing as he already has the permits to cross the Grand Canyon.

From the Canadian side, the early stages of the walk were almost completely obscured by mist from the falls. The crowd of 105,000, which is the largest in Niagara Falls in recent memory, cheered whenever someone caught a brief glimpse of Mr. Wallenda, clad in a bright red shirt.

Mr. Wallenda said he could not hear the cheers until the very end, but he could identify the massive crowd from the constant camera flashes.

Thousands of iPhones, iPads and video cameras were hoisted over heads to capture the walk, although most spectators would go home with photos of a tiny red dot in a white mist. Still, for most of the spectators, it was a chance to see what many described as a ”once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“I want to see history being made, the Wallenda name being brought back to the forefront,” said a Toronto man in a lawn chair before the walk, smoking a cigar.

In a city renowned for its tackiness, the massive crowd lining the Canadian side for the event was surprisingly wholesome: Indian grandmothers dressed in saris, young mothers pushing strollers and Mennonite families, all earnestly hoping to see the 33-year-old daredevil succeed.

“It’s not a nice sight seeing somebody falling to their death,” said spectator Sam Seepersad, from Toronto.

A section of fence which would have been visible to Mr. Wallenda after completing his walk was decorated with a bedsheet spray-painted with the words “You made it, Nik.” “It’s a congratulations, to let him know we care,” said Harvey Watters from Hamilton, Ont., the banner’s creator.

Mr. Wallenda is the seventh-generation of the Wallenda family of circus artists, and has been schooled in the family business since he was two years old. Plenty in his family have been killed or maimed by the profession, including most recently his grandfather Karl, who in 1978, tumbled to his death in front of TV cameras.

“I was 14 years old when Karl fell,” said Michael Hills, a self-described daredevil fan from Southampton, Ont. His blanket on the Niagara lawn was outfitted with a handmade poster featuring a quote from the fallen Wallenda patriarch, “being on a tightrope is living; everything else is waiting.”

Technically speaking, Mr. Wallenda is a “wire walker,” not a “tightrope walker.” The wire is anything but tight. Even before he took his first steps, the cable could be seen swaying in the breeze. And, like anything else near Niagara Falls, it was slick from the perpetual mist.

Niagara Falls is downriver from a hydroelectric facility and according to one spectator, “they’re carefully controlling the flow so the mist doesn’t bother [Mr. Wallenda].”

Hotel rates have skyrocketed for the occasion and the Niagara Parks Commission has bumped parking from $10 to $40. A Coca-Cola is $2.50, a bottle of water is $3, and there is not a drinking fountain in sight.

Of course, Mr. Wallenda was made to make the crossing with a piece of equipment unthinkable to his 19th century predecessors: A safety harness, demanded by broadcaster ABC. Although Mr. Wallenda had promised to keep it on, most spectators assumed — or hoped — he would tear it off.

“It kind of takes away from what he does for a living,” said spectator Judy Watters. “What are they going to do? Go out into the middle of the wire and arrest him?” said another.

“He should tear it off, it’s way more badass to walk across without a harness,” said Dustin Rivait, a professional poker player from St. Catharines, Ont. Mr. Rivait knows risk – only steps from the Falls he has seen $13,000 disappear in a matter of hours. “I can appreciate risk, I am definitely one that likes to walk a thin line, but nothing like this,” he said. “Some things are just in your blood.”

Below, rescue crews were on full alert in expectation that Mr. Wallenda would detach his harness and then tumble into the river. Nevertheless, Mr. Wallenda did the entire stunt with the tiny tether just a few meters behind him – although he said it nagged at him. “I was very nervous about it, every time I crossed over a [stabilizer] pendulum, it was on my mind,” he said.

Reportedly, Niagara Parks officials were wary bringing a wirewalker back to Niagara Falls fearing it could resurrect the days when amateur daredevils were routinely getting themselves killed, injured or trapped in illegal stunts off the waterway.

In 1995, a man zoomed off the falls in a jet ski, with the hare-brained plan that he would jump off, deploy a parachute and glide safely into the river below. The chute did not deploy, and a “loud bang” was the last bystanders heard of him.

Nevertheless, Niagara Falls’ adventurer past still looms large in local lore. Local motel rooms are decorated with grainy black and white photos of adventurers. Three years ago, a “Daredevil Exhibit” opened next to the city’s IMAX theatre with a collection of the various barrels, metal cylinders and reinforced boats that have taken daredevils over the falls or through the adjacent whirlpool. Two of the craft, a red, white and blue barrel and a jury-rigged collection of inner tubes, killed their occupants.

“One misstep of the foolhardy adventurer would have hurled him from his precarious footing and he would have disappeared from mortal eyes, until his mangled body could be picked up from below,” says a recorded voice at the museum’s wire walker exhibit.

An estimated one billion television viewers saw Mr. Wallenda’s walk, which was held after dark in order to make it as accessible to a global audience as possible. It was also one of the first international news stories out of Canada in several weeks not involving a dismemberment or murder.

“He’s a guy with a stick and he got the world’s attention,” said Wayne, at The Drink Shop, just off the city’s main drag.